Overview:

The Memorial of St. Boniface, Bishop and Martyr

A Reflection for the Memorial of St. Boniface, Bishop and Martyr

“As Jesus was teaching in the temple area he said, “How do the scribes claim that the Christ is the son of David?” (Mk 12:35)

Find today’s readings here.

Today’s Gospel feels contemporary: A group of believers debate the true meaning of a Bible verse. As we know, biblical interpretation can ignite religious passions. It can also perplex us. How often do we hear a politician or even a priest quote a Bible passage out of context to justify a particular way of seeing—or judging—the world? Alternatively, how often do we listen to a reading during Mass and think, “What on earth is St. Paul talking about?”

Well, take some comfort in the fact that Jesus, too, spent his energies interpreting the Scriptures. In today’s Gospel, we find him together with a group of scribes debating the use of the word “lord” in Psalm 110 as a crowd looks on in the temple area. He explores the question: Is the Christ the son of David or something greater than David? Yes, Jesus was fired up at times about crossing “T”s and dotting “I”s. And here you and I are, reading and writing a Scripture reflection that is trying to interpret a verse in which Jesus was trying to interpret a verse.

It’s readings like this that often cause me to pause and take a step back. What is the best approach to interpreting Scripture? Who is right and who is wrong? Is that even the right question to ask myself?

The good news is that we’re not left to our own devices. We don’t need to learn Greek and Hebrew. Our Catholic Church has discerned, studied and prayed exhaustively in every age going back to the life of Jesus himself about what the Scriptures say and mean. And from that heritage developed important criteria for how we can read, digest and open ourselves to be changed by the Scriptures.

We can mention several of those criteria, including the necessity of learning the historical context of the biblical authors, to understand what they were trying to communicate to their intended audiences, and to be aware of the dangers of reading the Bible literally—as if verses can be plucked and applied to the immediate problems of our lives or societies.

But I want to mention one criteria that is perhaps the most relevant for us as we engage with the lectionary readings as part of our daily spiritual practice: “actualization.” Essentially, it means rereading the text in light of the new circumstances in which we live. It starts from the premise that Scripture is part of a living tradition and therefore is always available to shed light on the church’s experience in history. That’s what you and I do when we reflect on and pray with the Scriptures and apply them to our lives, our church and our society.

Your prayerful reflection on the Scriptures matters. Our prayerful reflection together matters. The next time you feel confused by a Scripture reading, or angry that someone is taking it out of context, take a step back and breathe. Remember it is a living text, from a particular historical context, with something to say to us today. Pope Leo recently spoke about praying with the Scriptures in this way: “The first attitude to cultivate is listening, so that the divine Word may penetrate our minds and our hearts; at the same time, we are required to speak with God, not to communicate to him what He already knows, but to reveal ourselves to ourselves…. Only when we speak with God can we also speak about Him.”

Sebastian Gomes is America's executive editor of audio and video.